The Bengals Are Back-For Now

For the first time since the 1990 season, the Cincinnati Bengals are now 3-0. Yeah, that is three wins, no losses. I think the guys are onto something. In fact, looking back over their past three games, I don't believe the boys have been behind a single game, witht he exception of the very first game, in which their first opponents, the Cleveland Browns, scored a touchdown and follow-up extra point on their first possession, in a very short time. When I saw that, I said to myself, "well, here we go again." The Bengals quickly recovered, however, and have seemingly not loked back since then.

It all comes down to three factors. For one thing, they have a dream quarterback, possibly their best ever, in first round draft pick Carson Palmer. And they have augmented him nicely with as talented a group of receivers, backs, and ends as a team could hope for, many of them rookies. But the second factor is every bit as important, yet is seemingy the most overlooked area of pro football. That is, of course, the offensive line. The Bengals have talent here to spare, and of course for any team to make it to the play-offs, this is vital. I always said, you can have the best quarterback, the best wide receivers, the best full backs and halfbacks and tight ends in the history of the game, but if you don't have an offensive line capable of providing coverage and protection, you can have Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, etc., and they are next to worthless.

The third factor, of course, is to have an at least better than average defense, and this would be an understatement in the case of the Bengals. Yesterday, against the Chicago Bears, in Chicago, the bengals defensive squad forced six turnovers, five of these pass interceptions, and one fumble recovery. The Bengals went on to win the game by a whopping 27 to 7.

It's about time. It's been going on a decade since Mike Brown, the team owner, more or less blackmailed the city of Cincinnati to build him a new stadium, seperate from the Cincinnati Reds, a demand to which the city accedded by passing a one half cent sales tax. This was a cause of much controversy, as for going on seven years the Bengals had steadily declined to where they were arguably the worse team in the NFL. The new stadium, at first, did little to dispel their woes, as the alst two seasons saw the Bengals cling tenuosly to an 8-8 record. Hardly a cause for celebration, or justification for a new stadium.

Yet, Cincinnat is a football town, it seems, maybe more now than a baseball town. Average attendance at Bengals games, it turns out, was well over 50,000 per game, in the worse of years. The last couple of years, the attendance has climbed to an impressive, maybe even a stunning, 62,000 per game. Given the rate of spill-over into other areas of the Cincinnati economy this might normally portend, you pretty much have your justification.

But will all this continue? Unfortunately, probably not. Football players tend to gravitate, with the expiration of their contracts, to those franchises that pay them the money they want, which in the best of cases tends to be appreciably more than reputed tightwad Mike Brown is willing to pay. One can only hope that enough of the better players will remain long enough to attract other, equally or even more talented rookies, and eventually a new dynasty of sorts can be established. But without a willingness to fork over a larger share of the profits in the direction of those players who are bringing in those profits to begin with, it is unlikely to be a very long lived dynasty.

But to those of us who cannot completely enjoy even the best of football seasons when the Bengals are at their typical sub-par status, when a season such as this one comes along, it brings forth renewed hope. You start looking forward again to the next Sunday, instead of channel surfing for a good movie.

Me, I can't wait to see the Bengals play long time rivals the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yep, hope springs eternal, for at least one more year.